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Halves

by Great North

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1.
Lord, lead me to a downtown pay phone Loose change filling my fingertips And if it drops there’s nothing left to conjure up The ghost of that sweet love I left Clutching flowers to her dress I remember that fire-swept hillside Copper wire running through your lips As you raised your voice To the night sky I ran and I ran And I never looked back And I covered you In the spring tide I folded you into the past But the flies kept singing Above the rotting floorboards Where I once reached gingerly For your hand Now I am roaring like the Lion of Judah There’s a saviour rising in the west And he’s casting judgments from a crying letter I wrote as I trembled with bitterness And those drunken revellers Swayed in my head Gold is breaking Through the misty morning I’m escaping into the ether Bare skin is shaking As the fading streetlight’s Glowing faintly like the strands of her hair Lord, lead me by your sapphire angels Lead me by her rising chest Lead me to those sweet still waters Where the pale moon’s Lighting up my baby’s breath
2.
When You Go 02:55
By the laws of loss and love I’ll bide my time in the bed we shared And I’ll hem you into the slowest song To the beat of your shaky steps When you go It feels wrong But it sounds like singing Once your mind’s broken like bread And your tongue’s dried up like grain I’ll fold you inside my arms And I’ll speak to you just in case Tell you I will be yours and yours alone I won’t adhere to the rushing wind I won’t adhere to your heart like a torn bass drum I won’t adhere to your hissing breath When you go It feels like snow But it sounds like singing So I’ll wait for the seas to part For the dust to speak For the city to glow Silver in its streets Where the lost will reign Where the black clouds break Where the wronged will step On the heads of state And in that bursting breath In that last refrain Of a symphony You’ll come back again It’ll sound like singing
3.
Lead Me To The Light (free) 03:54
You are my home You are my home Wherever I may go I know you are my home Though the seas may rise And the skies may fall And those floods May climb over our highest walls I will hold you up Over the water We’ll sail for the dawn There will be no star To guide us from the rocks No floodlights Cutting through the fog Only this soft Whispering voice Calling in our blood So we’ll carry on Till we see a light We’ll carry on Till we see a light But it’s only our eyes Adjusting to the dark When I go down low Will you go beside? (I will walk with you) When the coal burns down When the salt boils through (I will walk with you) What must we lose To find out what won’t move Lead me to the light You are my home You are my home Wherever I may go I know you are my home When I go down low Will you stay behind? (I will wait for you) On the valley floor In the blackest room (I will wait for you) What must we lose To find out what’s true? Lead me to the light
4.
To Leave Someone (free) 03:00
Love is a destroying wind A slow retreating army It’s a lone star on the horizon Calling to the sea And though I know feelings change And words are cheap Tonight you’re dying to be heard So much you’re talking in your sleep You say you want to leave someone You say you want to leave someone Well, how ‘bout me? No-one keeps anything Some day it all gets taken away Even the greatest love Is gonna fade So now you wake at night Look into that familiar face Those breaths you used to count Those hands you used to trace You say you want to leave someone You say you want to leave someone Well, how ‘bout me? You say you want to leave someone Well, how ‘bout me?
5.
When the paint was peeling On the iron in your skin The choirs in your blood cells Danced slower with every pill To the rhythm of your silence To the singing in your breaths The lights on your tinderbox tongue Glowing ember red When the news finally came I couldn't take it in But every man and woman Will be written in that book When the great leveller Comes to reap his crop Of gauze over the grazes Of olives in the brine Of lonely men and women Calling up the empty night Of poets and paraders All trying to steal his lines So when it's time for kneeling I will kneel before the blade I'll let the kind cutter Sever me from my complaints And I won’t ask for reasons For reasons never came Reason never told you Who to leave and who to take There’ll be a time for weeping And a time to clear the graves out I will be made new
6.
Grace Notes 04:19
You were Mozart And I was Gershwin Recreating what went before him In the silence In the grace notes You moved into the tune But the dead men Came and taught you Words of stone And crumbling mortar They taught you reasons They taught you to be afraid To be ashamed I found a golden wind And we’ll ride it until the end Put your heart in my open hands I’ll be keeping it blood red I’ll be a light in this great abyss Oh my father Oh my father Oh the heroin In my water The babies crying Into the face of the flames They’d be crying again today I found a magic pill In Jerusalem, on that desolate hill I know it’s a bitter doubt But I’ll wrestle it Till it’s blood on my brow Till I’m turned inside out As our sympathies Wailed and wandered As our firm beliefs Brayed and bartered The water we wept into Rose and parted And you walked through I found a leaving note On the dresser Forty fathoms below It said I’m sorry I’ve got to go It’s impossible To call a sleeping dragon Your only home For long
7.
Actors 04:04
I’ll walk you down low roads And dark alleyways Twisting each phrase Till they do what I say But honey don’t do what I do It was fate That made me come this way You’re looking thin Like a Hollywood waif Shot full of holes From those drunken mistakes You made as you hollered And howled from the stage Well, so much for acting Cos it’s the most real When it feels the most fake The storms leave more wreckage Left strewn in their wake And even as you move That fine razor blade The camera keeps rolling
8.
All Our Lies 02:50
Sign your name to a lease So they won’t kick you out Turn your time into money Till you’re worn right down And the frauds sing for supper With their mealy mouths Wide open All our lies stuck like dirt To the driven snow Filled the bed between us As the radio played songs For the feelings that we used to know So easily But I’m still the man who told you That I would not let you go All our loans were defaulting So we took ourselves Down to the river And we ran aground All those ships not meant for sailing All those words not meant for saying Out loud But I’m still the man who told you That I would not let you down Sing it loud Sing it long I will never let you go I will never let you go Break the hearts of the bankers Make the money lenders run As the great pretenders Yell into their telephones Sing it loud Sing it long I will never let you go I will never let you go And if I’m still the man who loved you Why won’t you come back home?
9.
Salt 03:46
I tried lying to myself But it’s hard to be salt When it’s sour as hell And the dust on the road Is blowing into your mouth And that sad ringing note Is playing over and over And the mirrors and smoke Are all gone In a gust of wind As a lovers lament Holds hands with the mouth Of the soft firmament A gaping hole in the ground Where your body was spent That blood-spat-on hill Will be holding its breath Till you’re gone All the words being sucked Out of my throat By the end of the speech You were whiter than snow All those cringe-worthy lines That the typewriter wrote I choked them back By the time that I spoke You were gone The ghosts bought you gin In the lonely eclipse Of the evening blue Till somebody slipped That old crying disease Into your drink And the circling city men Casting lots for your bed Were all gone But darling it’s love And it’s bright bloody red And the morning will come When the quick and the dead Will be raised to the yell Of a newborn breath That ship will set sail With its sails all split And we’ll be gone
10.
Halves 03:54
All the foals are led out to die As a frozen howling wind Is blowing west across the plains Boring holes in the rocky cliffs And the sea is tumbling Straight off the edge of the world And out of sight And if you’re scared, darling that’s okay It just means your heart is beating right But it’s not for us Siamese twins Standing high on a burning bridge To cast our lots in the streets With the teenagers To wage our wars with the pioneers So now these walls are crumbling in (I will build you brick by brick) And there’s gravel in every breath (I will sing inside your chest) And I’ve come to the end of my road (I will fold you in my hands) You carry me one last step
11.
At your lonely mooring In this forgotten bay Every breath you’re drawing Is taking you further away from me As your tears are falling Like streamers from your face I’m not letting go At this golden harbour We’ll take our final bow Dive into deep blue water Darling, let it fill our mouths If all freedom’s fires Are burning underground I’m not letting go

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released May 27, 2012

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